Judge Giammarinaro delivers trafficking lecture

Last week, Judge Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in persons visited the EUI to deliver a keynote lecture entitled Addressing Demand in the Context of Different Forms of Trafficking.

The lecture was organised by DemandAT, an interdisciplinary project addressing the demand for trafficking in human beings, in collaboration with the TRAFFICKO project.

Previously, Giammarinaro was the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe).

In her lecture she explored the challenges to global efforts at preventing human trafficking. In particular, she asserted the need for more focus on trafficking for labour exploitation.

In an interview with EUI Life, Giammarinaro reaffirms that trafficking is a ‘’worldwide phenomenon’’ which ‘’affects over 20 million people’’. With reference to labour exploitation, she tells EUI Life that ‘’it’s necessary to engage with the business community.’’

The refugee crisis has also created additional need to prioritise anti-trafficking policies. ‘’We need to understand how people can be subjected to extreme forms of trafficking, which amounts to slavery in some cases’’, Giammarinaro added.

Watch the interview with Judge Maria Grazia Giammarinaro here: